“Reds, I thought he had some good shifts, I thought he had some crappy shifts, so it’s still, as we go through here…we’re frozen here at Christmas, we’re not bringing anybody up, but after Christmas, we have some decisions to make along the way.”

I don’t think they’d really send Redden down to Hartford. I think that Torts just wants to keep the pressure on him so that he’s always considering the possibility in the back of his mind. As bad as we’ve seen Redden play this year I think it’s safe to say that Roszival has played worse. Now LAST YEAR’S REDDEN- that’s another story.

Yeah Noonan it is wrong to skip out on granny just because of a dumb ol hockey game. At Thanksgiving I drove my Daughter to the supper at my brothers place , then went home to watch the game ..then after it was over I showed up around 9pm and they made me a cold plate. Plus my brother was watching Oilers hockey and there was no way I was missing Rangers while he saw his.

I still think Staal is overrated. He’s solid in spurts, but overall doesn’t specialize in anything. Most shut down d-men you know are going to hit you or use speed and excel at moving the puck up the other way. Staal isn’t fast, doesn’t hit much, and isn’t the best guy at moving the puck and starting a rush. He’s solid, but not that impressive.

I agree with Jonny D. I was expecting to see more improvements in Staal’s game, both offensively and defensively. It IS possible that if he were on a different team, a team that had more shot-down defensive guys, it would open up the chance for him to be more offensively productive. We’ve seen glimpses of him rush the puck up the ice like Brian Leetch would; but not enough to warrant a legitimate comparison. Torts’ offense was SUPPOSED to open up the D-Men to contribute on offense but as we’ve all seen this turned out to be a misnomer.

Still, I think it’s way too early to give up on the kid. Offensive guys find their game a lot sooner in the NHL than defensemen. It takes some seasoning, some wight gain, etc for a defenseman to gain his composure in the NHL. I would give him a few more years and then see where he’s at. The only problem with that is that each year that he doesn’t blossom, his trade value goes down.

Jonney D , your on glue buddy. Staalsie is the “new” breed , he plays great positional hockey and he is only getting better. He plays smart and will last a long ,long,long time in the NHL. Mark my words.

I agree with Johnny and the other guy. Staal hasn’t gotten any better, he got worse and then almost recovered to form (for 3 games). Still hasn’t impressed me and only slightly less depressing than girardi.

Greg L. – He’s not a new breed of d-man as those are guys who are physical, fast, and offensive (Phaneuf like even though defensively he sucks). He’s a solid defenseman that won’t wow you with anything he does, which is pretty much what I said. I never hinted at trading him and I think he should be a Ranger for a long time, but he’s not someone who I think deserves big bucks based on how he plays. If he wasn’t a Staal, nobody would make a big fuss about him.

But I feel like just because of his name and all the minutes he’s logging, he’s going to try to screw us into giving him a bigger contract than he deserves, kind of like Callahan got.

Pretty much to sum up what I mean, he’s solid, he does the job, but he isn’t as great as his reputation would lead you to believe, and most of that is because Jordan and Eric have had a ton of success so far. Its the same reason why I think the only reason young Jared will make it to the NHL is because of his name and if he were just another hockey player, he wouldn’t even be on an NHL teams’ map.

Staal is going to play 15-18 years in the NHL, and be a very solid defenseman, if not a standout, and as with most defensemen his prime will be age 28-33 or thereabouts … and if he goes someplace else for the next 12 or 14 years you will all be sorry.

Pronger was traded for Shannahan in his prime, so I wouldn’t second guess that deal. . . .although maybe Hartford should have locked Shanny up with a deal before parting with Pronger.

Staal is no Pronger, but he is a legit 1st pair Dman, and worth every bit of his #12 selection in the 1st round. He is very good at lot of things, but not great at anything. I’ll take it. I believe Stall will be a very good NHL player for a very long time. . . . unless Redden or Roszival contaminates him.

Staal clearly had a rough start this year and any hopes of him adding a lot of offense to his game have been at least delayed, if not dashed entirely (though he does have four goals, so he’s trending upwards). But to me, he’s still someone we should not be worried about.

Someone posted on here after the game against the Flyers, in which Staal was outstanding, that he had not watched the game (!) but playing 30+ minutes with no hits recorded to his name showed he was no good. Can’t please everybody.